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Energy Resources and Carbon Management

Carbon Storage Program

Geological Carbon Sequestration
Barry Freifeld (left) with Program Manager from Australia, Sandeep Sharma preparing equipment for geologic carbon sequestration project.

The Carbon Storage Program uses theory along with lab, field, and simulation approaches to investigate processes needed to inform and guide the safe and effective implementation of geologic carbon sequestration.

Highlights

Project

Brine Extraction and Storage Test (BEST)

The overall objective of the EPRI-led BEST project to be performed at the Lansing Smith electric generating station near Panama City, Florida, is to help develop cost-effective pressure control, plume management and produced water strategies that can be used to improve reservoir storage efficiency and capacity, and demonstrate safe, reliable containment of CO2 in deep geologic formations with CO2 permanence of 99% or better.

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Project

National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP)

The National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP) — an initiative within DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and led by the National Energy Technology Laboratory—applies DOE’s core competency in science-based prediction for engineered–natural systems to the long-term storage of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Program Overview

The Carbon Storage Program uses theory along with lab, field, and simulation approaches to investigate processes needed to inform and guide the safe and effective implementation of geologic carbon sequestration. Through collaborations with partner organizations that lead major field projects involving CO2 injection, the Carbon Storage program investigators confront and solve real-world challenges in monitoring, modeling, and data analysis. Through applying their world-leading capabilities, EESA investigators develop innovative and deployable scientific solutions to these challenges with an emphasis on applicability, knowledge dissemination, and technology transfer.

Key topics of investigation include:

  • Capacity, trapping mechanisms, and permanence
  • Field studies at CO2 injection sites, including fluid sampling under in situ conditions (U-Tube)
  • Monitoring and verification using geophysical (e.g., seismic) and surface methods (e.g., InSAR)
  • Containment assurance (leakage, seepage, and well-blowout impacts and mitigation)
  • Impacts on the environment, including to groundwater and induced seismicity
  • Risk-based assessment and certification
  • Performance prediction (using TOUGH suite of codes)
  • CO2-enhanced hydrocarbon recovery options
  • Machine learning for faster simulation and data analysis

 

Featured Projects

Project

Brine Extraction and Storage Test (BEST)

The overall objective of the EPRI-led BEST project to be performed at the Lansing Smith electric generating station near Panama City, Florida, is to help develop cost-effective pressure control, plume management and produced water strategies that can be used to improve reservoir storage efficiency and capacity, and demonstrate safe, reliable containment of CO2 in deep geologic formations with CO2 permanence of 99% or better.

Project

Large-scale carbon storage in saline volcanic basins

This project aims to critically evaluate this new storage paradigm focusing initially on two regions: Hawaii and Japan. The ultimate goal is to develop a reservoir model to assess the viability of large-scale CO2 storage in known and generic saline volcanic basins.

nrap_image2
Project

National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP)

The National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP) — an initiative within DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and led by the National Energy Technology Laboratory—applies DOE’s core competency in science-based prediction for engineered–natural systems to the long-term storage of carbon dioxide (CO2).